Modern electrical devices generate heat during operation, and as power levels rise, effective heat dissipation becomes essential. One critical component for this is the heatsink, often made from high-thermal-conductivity materials like aluminum alloy, brass, or bronze.
To ensure optimal thermal performance and avoid over- or under-engineering, it’s important to measure the thickness of heatsinks precisely — especially during production and design stages. Traditional methods like manual inspection with calipers are slow, inconsistent, and labor-intensive.
That’s where chromatic confocal sensors come in.
🧪 Application Overview: Dual-Head Thickness Measurement of Heatsinks
In this case, we used Hypersen’s chromatic confocal point sensor (HPS-CFL030) with the HPS-CF2000 controller to perform dual-sided thickness measurements on a heatsink made from reflective metal.
✅ Measurement Goals
Accurately measure the thickness of a heatsink at 18 key points
Ensure high repeatability and stability of the measurement
Replace slow and inconsistent manual methods
🔍 Why Chromatic Confocal Sensors?
Ideal for highly reflective materials like aluminum and copper
Capable of non-contact, high-resolution thickness measurements
Suitable for dual-head setups (top and bottom measurement simultaneously)
High-speed, high-accuracy, and highly repeatable
🧰 Test Setup & Procedure
Test Environment
Indoor testing under stable room temperature
Sensor Setup
Sensor heads: HPS-CFL030 (top & bottom)
Controller: HPS-CF2000
Sensors aligned co-axially using a built-in dual-head calibration process
System Settings
Exposure time: 400 µs
Median filtering and sliding average: 128
Trigger mode: Timing trigger
Measurement Process
18 measurement points selected along the edge of the heatsink
At each point, the dual-head system captured top and bottom surface positions
Thickness calculated from the distance difference between both surfaces
10 measurement cycles were repeated to check for consistency
📊 Measurement Results
Repeatability precision across all 18 points: ≤ 0.7 µm
Minor deviations at some points due to marker ink residue, which can slightly affect measurements
Even with potential setup and marker variability, the system demonstrated excellent repeatability
